This is a discussion on Federal HST 357 Sig Expansion into water jugs and wet newspaper+ an Expanded FBI .40 within the Defensive Ammunition & Ballistics forums, part of the Defensive Carry Discussions category; I went out to shoot some water jugs to try and recover some of the HST ammo I had gotten for my glock 32 in ...

I went out to shoot some water jugs to try and recover some of the HST ammo I had gotten for my glock 32 in 357 sig. Expansion was excellent as I've read. I also managed to shoot and recover a bonded .40 load from a friend in LE thinking my friend had loaded up the 180gr hst he just got in the mag for me. By mistake... I grabbed the other loaded mag of his thinking it was hst in .40 and shot two round of it. After recovering one of the rounds... it was obvious I hadn't shot the HST I meant to. Both the Federal HST 357 sig and LE .40 Ranger bonded were all found in the third gallon jug.
I built a 6ft wood "bone box" that I had been shooting into from ten feet. I managed to shoot one of the 357 sig HST's low and after the first water jug it hit the bottom of the box in the direction of the grain... then went along the side of a plastic bucket in back with wet newspaper effectively leaving a path along the length of the bucket. The round was pretty torn up and deformed as well as lost two of the six petals. But it still was nasty and I wouldn't want to get hit by it regardless.... hst expansion 1.jpghst1 overview.jpghst expansion2 (1024x768).jpgfbi 40 expansion.jpgfbi underside expansion.jpghst vs fbi 1.jpg

This is the "Box" I use to shoot into. It was actually built to test penetration for bullets for moose and bear which is why you see dividers in it. That gave us the ability to put different material to try and simulate layers of skin... fat/muscle.... and then bone (we use cow bones) in the next section.

This time though... the dividers weer gone... each shot had 4 gallon jugs and then a 5 gallon bucket packed full of soaked shredded newspaper on its side down to catch anything that made it through the jugs..... bone box.jpg

I went out to shoot some water jugs to try and recover some of the HST ammo I had gotten for my glock 32 in 357 sig. Expansion was excellent as I've read. I also managed to shoot and recover a bonded .40 load from a friend in LE thinking my friend had loaded up the 180gr hst he just got in the mag for me. By mistake... I grabbed the other loaded mag of his thinking it was hst in .40 and shot two round of it. After recovering one of the rounds... it was obvious I hadn't shot the HST I meant to. Both the Federal HST 357 sig and LE .40 Ranger bonded were all found in the third gallon jug.
I built a 6ft wood "bone box" that I had been shooting into from ten feet. I managed to shoot one of the 357 sig HST's low and after the first water jug it hit the bottom of the box in the direction of the grain... then went along the side of a plastic bucket in back with wet newspaper effectively leaving a path along the length of the bucket. The round was pretty torn up and deformed as well as lost two of the six petals. But it still was nasty and I wouldn't want to get hit by it regardless.... hst expansion 1.jpghst1 overview.jpghst expansion2 (1024x768).jpgfbi 40 expansion.jpgfbi underside expansion.jpghst vs fbi 1.jpg

Not surprised. The rounds you mention have a solid reputation for expansion and penetration.